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Authorised form of name Priestley; Joseph (1733 - 1804)
Dates 1733 - 1804
Nationality British
Place of birth Fieldhead Farmhouse, parish of Birstall, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Date of birth 13 March 1733
Place of death Northumberland, Pennsylvania, USA
Date of death 06 February 1804
DatesAndPlaces Burial:
Quakers' burial-ground, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, USA
Occupation Presbyterian Minister
Research field Chemistry
Electricity
Natural philosophy
Theology
Activity Education:
Batley Grammar School (1745), Daventry Academy (1751)
Career:
Minister, Needham Market, Suffolk; Minister, Nantwich, Cheshire; taught in Warrington; librarian-companion to Lord Shelburne (1774); Minister of the New Meeting, Birmingham (1780-1790)
Membership category Fellow
Date of election 12/06/1766
RSActivity Medals and prizes:
Copley Medal 1772
Relationships Married the sister of one of his pupils; three children: Sarah (1803), Joseph (1768-1833), William
Source Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; DSB
References:
W H G Armytage, 'Science and Education: a Note' in NR 1956-57 vol 12 pp 226-229
W A Smeaton, 'Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, FRS (1737-1816) and his Relations with British Scientists' in NR 1967 vol 22 pp 113-130
T E Allibone, 'The Club of the Royal College of Physicians, the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers and their Relationship to the Royal Society Club' in NR 1967 vol 22 pp 186-192
Robert E Schofield, 'The Lunar Society of Birmingham; A Bicentenary Appraisal' in NR 1966 vol 21 pp 144-161
R E W Maddison and Francis R.Maddison, 'Joseph Priestley and the Birmingham Riots' in NR 1956-57 vol 12 pp 98-113
John Thomas, 'Josiah Wedgwood's Portrait Medallions of Fellows of the Royal Society' in NR 1963 vol 18 pp 45-53, plate
Douglas McKie, 'Priestley's Laboratory and Library and Other of his Effects' in NR 1956-57 vol 12 pp 114-136
D McKie, 'A Note on Priestley in America' in NR 1953 vol 10 pp 51-59
Anon, 'A Portrait of Joseph Priestley, FRS, by James Millar, 1789' in NR 1939 vol 2 pp 32-33, plate
J S Rowlinson, review of R G W Anderson and C Lawrence (eds), Science, Medicine and Dissent: Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) in NR 1989 vol 43 pp 275-276
Stephen F Mason, 'Jean Hyacinthe de Magellan, FRS, and the Chemical Revolution of the Eighteenth Century' in NR 1991 vol 45 pp 155-164
J Edmund White, 'The Priestley Memorial Volume' in NR 1994 vol 48 pp 85-96
Alan Q Morton, 'Previous Public Perceptions of Science', review of Larry Stewart, The Rise of Public Science: Rhetoric, Technology and Natural Philosophy in Newtonian Britain, 1660-1750 and Jan Golinski, Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760-1820 in NR 1994 vol 48 pp 157-159
A V Simcock, '"Reason's Dim Telescope": A Poetic Tirade Against Joseph Priestley, FRS' in NR 1995 vol 49 pp 79-84
Linde Katritzky, 'Coleridge's Links with Leading Men of Science' in NR 1995 vol 49 pp 261-276
Paul Elliott, 'Abraham Bennet, FRS (1749-1799): A Provincial Electrician in Eighteenth-Century England' in NR 1999 vol 53 pp 59-78
J B Morrell, 'Professors Robison and Playfair, and the Theophobia Gallica: Natural Philosophy, Religion and Politics in Edinburgh, 1789-1815' in NR 1971 vol 26 pp 43-63
Maurice Crosland, 'Explicit Qualifications as a Criterion for Membership of the Royal Society: A Historical Review' in NR 1982-83 vol 37 pp 167-187
R V Jones, 'Benjamin Franklin' in NR 1976-7 vol 31 pp 201-225
William P Griffith, 'Priestley in London' in NR 1983-84 vol 38 pp 1-16, plate
L B Glyn, 'Israel Lyons: a short but starry career. The life of an eighteenth-century Jewish botanist and astronomer' in NR 2002 vol 56 pp 275-305
R W Jones, 'Dalton's unfortunate choice' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 15-33
N G Coley, 'George Pearson MD, FRS (1751-1828): 'The greatest chemist in England'? in NR 2003 vol 57 pp
161-175
D King-Hele, 'Makers of the future. The Lunar Men: the friends who made the future, by J Uglow' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 348 - 350
J S Rowlinson, 'Displacing Phlogiston. Robert Siegfried, From elements to atoms: a history of chemical composition' in NR 2004 vol 58 pp 242-243
Virtual International Authority File http://viaf.org/viaf/120696744
Code NA8274
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNo Title Date
MM/5/18 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 16 January 1784
MM/5/12 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 8 January 1783
MM/5/3 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 31 May 1781
MM/5/9 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 16 September 1782
MM/18/143 Letter from Arthur Bennett and E James Hall, Warrington Society, to Thomas Edward Thorpe 1 February 1904
MM/5/2 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 26 May 1781
IM/003673 Priestley, Joseph 1996
MM/18/142 Letter from Arthur Bennett, Warrington Society, to Thomas Edward Thorpe 29 January 1904
IM/003670 Priestley, Joseph nd
MM/5/33 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Clapton, to Thomas Wedgwood 5 May 1792
MM/5/27 Letter from Joseph Priestley to Josiah Wedgwood October 1790
CB/2/164 Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to Joseph Priestley 11 June 1788
IM/003669 Priestley, Joseph nd
CB/2/117 Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to Joseph Priestley 8 February 1788
IM/003672 Priestley, Joseph nd
IM/003668 Priestley, Joseph nd
MM/5/23 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 8 January 1788
MM/5/22 Copy of a letter from Josiah Wedgwood to Joseph Priestley 25 August 1787
CB/2/409 Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to Joseph Priestley 5 May 1790
MM/5/14 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 23 January 1783
MM/5/10 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 10 October 1782
MM/5/15 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 7 March 1783
MM/5/28 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 16 February 1791
MM/5/26 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 9 October 1788
MM/5/31 Letter from Joseph Priestley, London, to Thomas Wedgwood February 1792
MM/5/4 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 26 June 1781
MM/5/13 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 16 January 1783
MM/5/32 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Clapton, to Thomas Wedgwood 13 March 1792
MM/5/11 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 8 December 1782
MM/5/17 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 24 July 1783
MM/5/5 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 8 August 1781
MM/5/19 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 23 January 1784
MM/5/24 Letter from Joseph Priestley to Josiah Wedgwood September 1788
MM/5/30 Letter from Joseph Priestley, London, to Josiah Wedgwood 7 September 1791
MM/18/144 Priestley centenary invitation card, produced by The Warrington Society 1904
CB/2/157 Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to Joseph Priestley 2 June 1788
CB/2/305 Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to Joseph Priestley 5 September 1789
MM/18/13 Letter from W Cameron Walker to RB Knott 4 June 1951
MM/18/5 Letter from W Cameron Walker to Emma Frances Knott 3 July 1933
MM/18/10 Letter from Emma Frances Knott to W Walker Cameron 14 June 1934
MM/5/1 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 30 November 1780
MM/18/7 Letter from Emma Frances Knott to W Walker Cameron 25 November 1933
CB/2/252 Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to Joseph Priestley 8 June 1789
P/0104 Portrait of Priestley, Joseph 1789
MM/18/14 Letter from RB Knott to W Walker Cameron 2 January 1952
CB/2/315 Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to Joseph Priestley 1 March 1790
MM/5/25 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 18 August 1788
MM/18/11 Letter from W Cameron Walker to RB Knott 30 May 1951
MM/20/50 Letter from Josiah Wedgwood to Joseph Priestley 30 July 1791
MM/18/145 Edgar F Smith, Printed lecture circular c.1904
MM/18/6 Letter from W Cameron Walker to Emma Frances Knott 22 November 1933
MM/5/29 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 26 February 1791
MM/14/27 An extract from the will of Robert Cappe 1802
CB/1/2/10 Letter from Charles Blagden, Paris to Joseph Banks, Soho Square, London 27 June 1783
IM/005886 Hauksbee, Francis and Priestley, Joseph nd
CB/2/193 Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to Joseph Priestley 15 December 1788
CB/2/149 Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to Joseph Priestley 23 May 1788
CB/2/215 Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to Joseph Priestley 20 February 1789
MM/5/8 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 21 March 1782
P/0105 Portrait of Priestley, Joseph
IM/003667 Priestley, Joseph nd
IM/003666 Priestley, Joseph nd
IM/005380 Priestley, Joseph 1993
IM/003671 Priestley, Joseph 1860
IM/005385 Priestley, Joseph 1993
IM/005387 Priestley, Joseph 1993
MS/654/2 Three letters from Joseph Priestley nd
NLB/19/409 Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Reverend Alexander Gordon, Memorial Hall, Manchester 25 September 1899
MC/8/48 Letter from James Yates, Lauderdale House, Highgate, to Wm [William] Allen Miller, Treasurer of the Royal Society 24 May 1867
L&P/9/160 Paper, 'Observations on respiration' by Joseph Priestley 1790
L&P/5/12 Paper, 'Account of Dr Priestley's new experiments in electricity drawn up by Benjamin Franklin' 1768
L&P/6/120 Letters, 'Discoveries on air' from Joesph Priestley 24 May 1775
L&P/5/168 Paper, 'Observations on charcoal' by Joseph Priestley 1769
L&P/5/167 Paper, 'Of lateral explosions in an electrical discharge' by Joseph Priestley 22 February 1770
L&P/6/153 Paper, 'Observations of respiration and on the use of the blood' by Joseph Priestley 1775
L&P/5/78 Paper, 'Experiments on the latent force of electriccal explosions' by Joseph Priestley 1769
L&P/5/13 Paper, 'An account of rings of prismatic colours formed by electrical explosions on metal surfaces' by Joseph Priestley 1768
L&P/5/284 Paper, 'Observations on different types of air' by Joseph Priestley 1772
L&P/9/198 Paper, 'Further experiments on the decomposition of dephlogisticated and inflammable air' by Joseph Priestley 1791
L&P/6/8 Letter, 'Effluvia of putrid marshes' from Joseph Priestley to John Pringle 1773
L&P/8/138 Paper, 'Experiments and observations relating to air and water' by Joseph Priestley 1785
L&P/8/31 Letter, 'Experiments on phlogiston' from Joseph Priestley to Joseph Banks 21 April 1783
L&P/9/13/1 Letter, 'Description of a new electrometer' from Abraham Bennet to Joseph Priestley 14 September 1786
L&P/9/105 Paper, 'Objections to the experiments and observations on the principle of acidity and the composition of water considered' by Joseph Priestley 1788
L&P/9/86 Paper, 'Additional experiments and observations relating to the principle of acidity, the decomposition of water and phlogiston' by Joseph Priestley 1788
L&P/9/77 Paper, 'Experiments and observations relating to the principle of acidity, the composition of water and phlogiston' by Joseph Priestley 1788
L&P/8/75 Paper, 'On Priestley's and his own experiments on and views as to the nature of phlogiston' from James Watt to Jean Andre De Luc 26 November 1784
L&P/7/264 Letter, 'Of some remarkable electrical phenomena' by Joseph Priestley to Paul Henry Maty 14 October 1775
L&P/9/122 Paper, 'Description of experiments on the phlogistication of spirit of nitre by heat' by Joseph Priestley 1789
MS/426/537 Copy letter from W [William] Sharpey, Secretary of the Royal Society; to Edwin Canton 28 April 1855
MOB/035 Joseph Priestley's spectacles 18th century
M/112 Copley Medal of the Royal Society to Priestley 1773
IM/005383 Priestley, Joseph 1993
IM/005386 Priestley, Joseph 1993
IM/005381 Priestley, Joseph 1993
MM/5/7 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 6 March 1782
MM/5/16 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 23 March 1783
MM/20/46 Letter from Joseph Priestley to Josiah Wedgwood 22 July 1781
MM/5/20 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 8 November 1784
MM/5/6 Letter from Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, to Josiah Wedgwood 18 August 1781
MM/20/48 Letter from Joseph Priestley to Josiah Wedgwood 26 August 1787
MM/5/38 Copy of letter from James Watt, Birmingham, to Joseph Priestley 26 April 1783
IM/003674 Priestley, Joseph nd
IM/005384 Priestley, Joseph 1993
NLB/11/862 Copy letter from Herbert Rix, to Philip Joseph Hartog, Owens College, Manchester 21 October 1895
L&P/6/226 Letter, 'An account of persons who could not distinguish colours' from Joseph Huddart to Joseph Priestley 15 January 1777
IM/003675 Priestley, Joseph c 1904
MM/18/141 Letter from Arthur Bennett, Warrington Society, to Thomas Edward Thorpe 19 January 1904
MM/20/49 Letter from Joseph Priestley to Josiah Wedgwood 26 June 1791
MM/20/47 Letter from Joseph Priestley to Josiah Wedgwood 6 May 1783
IM/003665 Priestley, Joseph nd
IM/005382 Priestley, Joseph 1993
MS/654 Priestley Papers
EC/1766/12 Priestley, Joseph: certificate of election to the Royal Society
P/0103 Portrait of Priestley, Joseph c 1763
MOB/034 Electrical machine by Joseph Priestley c.1767
AP/4/8 Unpublished translation, 'Physical researches on fixed air' by Felice Fontana 1775
L&P/7/251 Letter, 'Analyses of toadstone and Rowley rag' from Joseph Priestley on behalf of William Withering to Joseph Banks 28 March 1782
MC/8/50 Letter from James Yates, Lauderdale House, Highgate, to Wm [William] Allen Miller, Treasurer of the Royal Society 29 May 1867
MC/8/69 Letter from James Yates, Lauderdale House, Highgate, to Walter White, [Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society] 13 July 1867
AP/28/25 Unpublished paper, 'On phlogiston and the decomposition of water' by W F [William Ford] Stevenson 14 January 1846
AP/32/18 Unpublished paper, 'Water and its supposed constituents' by William Ford Stevenson 19 March 1850
MC/8 Volume 8 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society 1867-1869
L&P/5/304 Letter, 'Of a new electrometer by William Henley; and of several experiments made by him' from Joseph Priestley to Benjamin Franklin 26 October 1770
L&P/7/93 Letter, 'Of the plan to recover people in Russia apprently deprived of life by the burning of charcoal' from Mathew Guthrie to Joseph Priestley 12 October 1778
L&P/7/102 Letter, 'Airs from different kinds of waters' from Felice Fontana to Joseph Priestley 9 February 1779
L&P/9/87 Letter, 'Additional experiments and observations relating to the principle of acidity, the decomposition of water and phlogiston' from James Keir to Joseph Priestley 26 March 1788
L&P/9/88 Letter, 'Additional experiments and observations relating to the principle of acidity, the decomposition of water and phlogiston' from William Withering to Joseph Priestley 22 February 1788
L&P/9/143 Paper, 'Experiments on the transmisison of the vapour of acids through an hot earthen tube, and further observations relating to phlogiston' by Joseph Priestley 1789
L&P/9/150 Letter, 'An account of some luminous arches' from William Hey to Joseph Priestley 31 December 1783
MC/17 Volume 17 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society 1897-1899
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